Liz’s changing relationship with food reflects her transformation. This is most clear in the “Italy” section, which depicts Liz exploring Italian cuisine. In one scene, she prepares lunch for herself after a shopping spree, arranging each item on her plate into a “masterpiece of lunch”—asparagus, soft-boiled eggs, goat cheese, olives, salmon, “making something out of nothing” (70). She repeats the word “nothing” in descriptions of meals consumed soon after her arrival in Italy. Her attitude toward food is linked to her self-esteem. The end of her affair with David left her with a lack of self-worth. She goes from being “nothing” to deserving and demanding “only the best” in Book 1, which is subtitled “36 Tales About the Pursuit of Pleasure.” Her first question when she visits any city other than Rome is, “Where is the best food in this town?” (124), reflecting her changed perspective. By the time she makes her last Italian journey, to the island of Sicily, the asks the proprietress to bring “her very best meal.”

At the beginning of the narrative, Liz personifies loneliness and depression. They stalk her, take up residence in her apartment in Rome and leave the smell of cigar smoke.